V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:LS/v2;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

**28. TO A. SHLYAPNIKOV**

10/X 1915.

Dear Friend,

Tomorrow we are bringing out two issues of the Central Organ at once—Nos. 45-46 (devoted to the Zimmerwald Conference) and No. 47, containing news from Russia and "theses" on tactics.

These theses contain partly answers to questions we touch upon in our correspondence and you in your talks with Nikolai Ivanovich [Bukharin], etc. I shall await your comments.

Have you received the Russian text of the pamphlet "Socialism and War"?

(In parentheses: Alexandra Mikhailovna sent a criticism of the German text, and I replied to her in America with a detailed letter. If you are interested, ask her to send it to you. Regarding her leaflet, I wrote to her in Bergen, asking permission to make corrections. There is no answer. I am afraid we shall have to send it to America, and that will mean a great delay.)¹

News from Russia testifies to the growth of revolutionary sentiment and movement, although this, apparently, is not yet the beginning of a revolution.

The most important thing for us now is to establish connections and make them regular (this is quite possible by correspondence; discuss whether it would not be possible to send single copies of the newspaper and leaflets in thin bindings). Let us hope that Belenin will succeed in arranging this. Without this, systematic, connected work is unthinkable.

Pay special attention to the thesis on the Soviet of Workers' Deputies.

We must be cautious with this thing: two or three hundred leaders are not the whole mass!!

Without connection with an uprising, the "strength" of the Soviet of Workers' Deputies is an *illusion*.

We must not give way to it.

A firm handshake. Yours, Lenin.

Could not correspondence be organised by chemical means for the rapid delivery to Petrograd of such articles of the Central Organ as the "11 Theses"? Think it over carefully!²

¹ None of the letters of Vladimir Ilyich to A. M. Kollontai mentioned here are in the possession of the Institute.
² In view of the great importance of the "theses" referred to in Vladimir Ilyich's letter, and their significance for understanding Vladimir Ilyich's letters, we reproduce them in full from No. 47 of *Sotsial-Demokrat*.

**A FEW THESES.**

**From the Editorial Board.**

The material published in this issue shows what enormous work the Petrograd Committee of our Party has accomplished. For Russia and the whole International, this is truly a model of Social-Democratic work during a reactionary war, under the most difficult conditions.

The workers of Petrograd and Russia will support this work with all their might and will carry it further, more energetically, more strongly, more widely along the same path.

Taking into account the indications from comrades in Russia, we formulate several theses on the burning questions of Social-Democratic work:

1) The slogan of a "Constituent Assembly", as an independent slogan, is incorrect, for the whole question now is who will convene it. The liberals accepted this slogan in 1905, because it could be interpreted in the sense of an assembly convened by the tsar and coming to terms with him. The most correct slogans are those of the "three whales" (democratic republic, confiscation of the landed estates, and an eight-hour working day) with the addition (cf. No. 9) of an appeal for international solidarity of the workers in the struggle for socialism, for the revolutionary overthrow of the belligerent governments and against the war. 2) We are against participation in the war-industries committees, which help to wage the imperialist, reactionary war. We are for utilising the election campaign, e.g., for participation in the first stage of elections only for agitational and organisational purposes. — A boycott of the State Duma is out of the question. Participation in the re-elections is absolutely necessary. As long as there are no deputies of our Party in the State Duma, it is necessary to utilise everything that happens in the Duma from the standpoint of revolutionary Social-Democracy. 3) We consider the most immediate and urgent tasks to be the consolidation and extension of Social-Democratic work among the proletariat, and then its extension to the rural proletariat, the village poor and the army. — The most important task of the revolutionary Social-Democrats is to develop the strike movement that has begun, conducting it under the slogan of the "three whales". In agitation, due place must be given to the demand for the immediate cessation of the war. Among other demands, the workers must not forget the demand for the immediate return of the workers' deputies, members of the R.S.D.L.P. 4) Soviets of Workers' Deputies and similar institutions must be regarded as organs of insurrection, as organs of revolutionary power. Only in connection with the development of a mass political strike and in connection with an insurrection, as it is prepared, develops and succeeds, can these institutions be of lasting benefit. 5) The social content of the impending revolution in Russia can only be the revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry. The revolution cannot be victorious in Russia without overthrowing the monarchy and the serf-owning landlords. And they cannot be overthrown without the support of the peasantry for the proletariat. — The step forward in the differentiation of the countryside into "farmstead-owners" and rural proletarians has not destroyed the oppression of the Markovs and Co. over the countryside. We have stood and stand unconditionally for the necessity of a separate organisation of the rural proletarians, in all and every case. 6) The task of the proletariat of Russia is to carry the bourgeois-democratic revolution in Russia to completion, in order to kindle the socialist revolution in Europe. This second task has now come extremely close to the first, but it remains nevertheless a special and second task, for it is a question of different classes co-operating with the proletariat of Russia; for the first task the collaborator is the petty-bourgeois peasantry of Russia, for the second—the proletariat of other countries. 7) We consider, as before, the participation of Social-Democrats in a provisional revolutionary government together with the democratic petty bourgeoisie to be permissible, but only not with revolutionary chauvinists. 8) We consider as revolutionary chauvinists those who want victory over tsarism for victory over Germany,—for the plunder of other countries,—for the consolidation of the domination of the Great Russians over the other peoples of Russia, etc. The basis of revolutionary chauvinism is the class position of the petty bourgeoisie. It always wavers between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Now it wavers between chauvinism (which prevents it from being consistently revolutionary even in the sense of a democratic revolution) and proletarian internationalism. The political spokesmen of this petty bourgeoisie in Russia at the present moment are the Trudoviks, the S.R.s, *Nasha Zarya*, the Chkheidze faction, the O.K., Mr. Plekhanov and the like. 9) If the revolutionary chauvinists were to be victorious in Russia, we would be against the defence of "their" fatherland in the present war. Our slogan—against the chauvinists, even if they are revolutionaries and republicans, against them and for the alliance of the international proletariat for the socialist revolution. 10) To the question whether the leading role of the proletariat in the bourgeois Russian revolution is possible, we answer: yes, it is possible, if the petty bourgeoisie at decisive moments swings to the left, and it is pushed to the left not only by our propaganda, but also by a number of objective factors: economic, financial (the burdens of war), military, political, etc. 11) To the question what the party of the proletariat would do if the revolution placed it in power in the present war, we answer: we would propose peace to all the belligerents on condition of the liberation of the colonies and all dependent, oppressed and disenfranchised peoples. Neither Germany, nor England and France, under their present governments, would accept this condition. Then we would have to prepare and wage a revolutionary war, i.e., we would not only carry out by the most energetic measures our whole minimum programme, but we would systematically set in motion all the peoples now oppressed by the Great Russians, all the colonies and dependent countries of Asia (India, China, Persia, etc.), and also—and above all—we would raise the socialist proletariat of Europe for an insurrection against their governments and, despite the social-chauvinists, for the overthrow of the rule of the bourgeoisie.